Poor Mussel

I was amazed a the size of this mussel shell in a secluded cove and had to get closer to be sure it was exactly what I thought it was. Here it is on my shrub rake, it's 6 inches across. It's probably the Eastern elliptio (Elliptio complanata).

What bothered me though, was that this mussel shell was open and in the sun, with the living tissue parts no longer attached to the shell. While it allowed me to see and photograph its intriguing innards, the fact that it had no future was upsetting.

Since the age of mussels can be determined by counting the rings on their shells, this one looks like it's easily more than twelve years old, and probably closer to twenty.

Purple Carnivore

This beautiful little display is the flower of an aquatic carnivorous plant, the large purple bladderwort (Utricularia purpurea). It's not a purple people eater, but a purple planktonic eater ...

It has bladders on its "foliage" that trap teeny tiny animals swimming or floating past. There's a niche for everything!

The little dots on the plant below are the traps that help keep insect larvae numbers down (read mosquitoes!).

Meet Mr. Jackson

Our new local resident is a young groundhog, named Mr./Mrs. Jackson - it's been seen around quite a bit lately, but never really slow or close enough for a good photo - this is what I have so far.

Impending Storm

 How deep and rich colors become when there's an incoming storm ...

I was able to get off the water before it materialized, despite being distracted by wild blueberries (in immodest abundance)!

How lovely to have a small little island of blueberries all to myself

Later, at home, it looked like this